How did we learn to consume people instead of
connecting with them?

Our liquid society.

Bauman described modern
society as "liquid" because everything that
once gave people stability ( jobs, communities,
identies, relationships ) became increasingly
flexible, temporary, and reversible.

In a world where everything is constantly
changing, we learn to keep our options open.
Every day we are reminded that there could
be a better product, experience, city or career.
Slowly, the search for the next thing becomes
a way of relating to the world.

The product logic of relationships

We were carefully trained to consume
people as if human connection was just
another product catergory. Every incompatibility
starts to look like a defect.
Every difficulty becomes a reason to move on.
And if everyon is replaceable, investing deeply
starts to feel optional.

Consumer culture promises a product tailored to
every need. So why wouldn't it promise the same
for relationships?

The goal is no longer to build the relationship.
It's to find the right one. Someone who requires
less work.

We all want connection. Intimacy. Belonging.
But we've learned to pursue them like consumers.
Searching, comparing, Optimising. And then we
wonder why connection struggle to last.

Real connection resists the frictionless efficiency
that modern life demands. It is slow and often
inconvenient. It requires patience, compromise,
vulnerability. Intimacy asks us to stay and work
through things instead of constantly searching
for something easier.

Mae.community
art:From the Abyss by Yuko Morino